BLACK VINYL

For listeners who had caught up with the Cardigans on their breakout album, Life, the group's third album was a confusing pastiche which included several conventional pop songs, but also added tracks with left-field arrangements and some (comparatively) disturbing lyrics. In reality, however, the group had simply returned to the mood and feel of their debut album. On Emmerdale, the melancholy was personal and solitary in nature, but here depression is focused on unfaithful lovers -- in both the songs which vocalist Nina Persson helped out with lyrics and those written by the rest of the band ("Choke," "Step on Me," "The Great Divide"). Even the single, "Lovefool," is a depressing lament of unrequited affection, and the presence of another Black Sabbath cover ("Iron Man") certainly isn't an immediate upper. Still, First Band on the Moon is saved by the Cardigans' core strengths: Persson's vocals and Svensson's arrangements.

A1        Your New Cuckoo
A2        Been It    
A3        Heartbreaker
A4        Happy Meal II
A5        Never Recover    
A6        Step On Me   
B1        Lovefool    
B2        Losers
B3        Iron Man
B4        Great Divide
B5        Choke